Fishing Sprats on Loch Lomond: Part 2. (Page 2)

Disaster free mounts:

There is little point in spending the time and trouble preserving and dying sprats and then finding that any advantage is cancelled out by unsuitable or unserviceable mounts.

Shop bought mounts are generally flimsy affairs which will land the average fish without great difficulty, but when faced with the power and destructive ability of a large spring salmon on open water there are several weakness and design flaws which have caused breakages and losses of fish.

(Click the picture to make full size)

Common failures of shop bought mounts are;

1. The spike shears off just below the spinning vane, usually in the course of playing a fish. I once landed a fish that had the spike driven into it's snout as far as the lead, which had then sheared off, and as you can imagine the fish did not appear very happy about it. This failure leaves the hook link attached to the mount only by a flimsy copper pin, which can detach at any time.

2. The attachment at the front consists of a half swivel loop with the pin inserted through a hole at the front of the mount, with the end of the pin "belled" to hold it in place. This arrangement puts a lot of faith in a man with a hammer and curly bit of tin.

The only way to achieve a fault free mount is to make your own.

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